Joliet

ON the one hand the steel works. On the other hand the penitentiary. Sante Fe trains and Alton trains Between smokestacks on the west And gray walls on the east. And Lockport down the river. Part of the valley is God's. And part is man's. The river course laid out A thousand years ago. The canals ten years back. The sun on two canals and one river Makes three stripes of silver Or copper and gold Or shattered sunflower leaves. Talons of an iceberg Scraped out this valley. Claws of an avalanche loosed here.